Ice

Despite a fresh coating of snow Tuesday, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office says much of the ice in the area is thin. Officials are urging people to use caution on all bodies of water throughout the county.

For the second consecutive winter, bitter weather threatens to turn the surface of the Great Lakes into a vast, frozen plain. Nearly 81 percent of the lakes’ surface area was covered with ice, the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory reported Friday.

Two people had to be pulled from a pick-up truck on Leech Lake Friday after it broke through thin ice. According to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, deputies received a call around 7:49 a.m. Friday of a vehicle partially through the ice on Leech Lake.
Upon arrival, officers and the Walker Fire Department found two people in the bed of the truck, uninjured but unable to get out safely.
Sheriff Tom Burch said the fire department was able to successfully rescue the two from the truck,
They were not injured.
Officers are urging people to practice caution on the ice as, despite the previous week’s cold temperatures, the ice is not safe everywhere. They urge people to check the thickness first before going out, and remind people that ice should never be considered 100 percent safe.

The St. Croix River has become a frozen playground for those who love winter and the outdoors. It seems to, over the last ten years, bring more and more people out here,” Dave Farr, of Bayport, said. Three times a week, Farr runs his dogs up and down the St Croix River, but his exercise route ends south of the new St. Croix bridge.

Snow may become even more of a hassle for anyone owning property in Minneapolis. According to city officials, Minneapolis is aiming to clear sidewalks across the city quicker in 2015. Current Minneapolis ordinance requires property owners to clear sidewalks up to 24 hours after for houses and duplexes, and four daytime hours for all other properties.

Skating out on the pond started a bit later this winter, all thanks to the warmer December Minnesota had. But, the cold temps are back just in time for the 10th Annual U.S. Pond Hockey Championships on Lake Nokomis.

In just over a month, Red Bull’s Crashed Ice will return to St. Paul. Athletes will fly down the icy, quarter mile track at speeds reaching 40 miles per hour. Training can take months and the recent December warm up, when temperatures reached the 50s, is having an impact on how athletes are getting ready for the competition.

As sleet came down in the metro Sunday afternoon, road crews prepared for what could be a messy Monday commute. According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, temperature is key because it’s expected to hover overnight between 30 and 35 degrees — right around freezing.

Crews in Eden Prairie spent this chilly Thanksgiving putting out a fire. The fire broke out Thursday afternoon in a duplex on Belvedere Drive and Pioneer Trail. It destroyed the left side of the duplex.

This Thanksgiving holiday, Mother Nature apparently didn’t consult the calendar. Wednesday will be one of the busiest travel days of the year. That makes for particularly bad timing because a Nor’easter capable of dropping many as 13 inches along the East Coast is set to hit Wednesday morning.

Having moved to Minnesota from Florida, my scariest aquatic experience involved a water temperature below 80 degrees, until Tuesday. I put on a protective “mustang” suit, ready for a mock water rescue in icy Lake Minnetonka with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol. Not yet at ice’s edge, I was already panic stricken. I can’t imagine this as my job.

It’s been more than three decades since the last time the Minnesota high school football championship was played outdoors. And like this year, weather played a key part. David McCoy shows why the 1981 was a game memorable for more than just its place in history.

Cold, ice and snow complicated practice plans this week for teams in the Minnesota state high school football semifinals. Wintry weather is not the biggest challenge coaches and players at Minneapolis North have faced, and not because their nickname is the Polars.

We’re still two weeks away from stuffing ourselves with turkey, followed by tryptophan-induced naps on the couch, and yet many of us have put away the bicycles for the year. With snow possible from October to April, Minnesotans have one of two choices: bike only half of the year, or learn to ride in the winter months.

Crews across the state are working to clear the roads before ice becomes a bigger problem. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) says the timing of the storm made things tough Monday morning. They pre-treated several roads, but Mother Nature usually wins.